Innehållsförteckning för July 2019 från Bass Player

The world of bass is moving forward, and we’re going with it—which is why we asked you, readers, to vote last month in an online poll of the Hottest (or Coolest, if you prefer) Bassists In The World. We were looking for your nominations for bass players, young, old, new, or established, who are taking the instrument forward—and you voted in your thousands. Joe Dart of Vulfpeck came in at Number 1 on our poll with ease, reflecting the admiration the bass community feels for his phenomenal skills on the instrument. Snapping at his heels in the top few entries came Mohini Dey, the Indian bass prodigy; Michael League of Snarky Puppy; and Austrian bass educator and performer Ariane Cap. I’m absolutely delighted that we managed to sit down with…

“Ulrich Teuffel is one of my heroes, and I read in an old interview that according to him, ‘It’s impossible to be a good guitar builder, and a good bass builder’. From a physical and technological standpoint, I refuse to accept that,” states Ola Strandberg. Practically redefining the word innovation with his designs, Strandberg’s achievements are all the more remarkable since he’s never having received a single day of formal training. What started as a hobby back in the early 80s, has become a pillar in the global guitar community. His focus isn’t so much on making basses so smart that they come with their own degrees, but more so on the health and the longevity of bass players, he explains: “I came up with the catchphrase, ‘Feel better. Sound…

If you’re at an audition, and find yourself having to play the agreed songs far too fast or far too loud, what do you do? Say it’s not for you and walk out? Comment, risk being considered opinionated, and blow your chances of joining? Or bite your tongue and wait to join the band properly, then see if constructive criticism and advice are welcome? It all depends on how much you like the band in question, and what your plans and expectations are. In the eyes of some experienced Basschat members, excessive volume and speed in a live performance denote an unprofessional schoolboy band, and life’s too short to put up with that. Others recommend a more cautious approach. If the tables were turned, would your own band be happy…

The late, great upright bass player Rob Wasserman worked with countless top names, including Neil Young, Brian Wilson, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, and Ani DiFranco, during his incredible career. He won a Grammy with Bobby McFerrin, and his own Duets album of 1988 was nominated for three Grammys, too. He also won an Edison Award for Record of the Year in Holland and was one of the judges for four consecutive Independent Music Awards. Wasserman, a California native, began on the violin as a kid before hitting the bass in his teens. He attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, studying with composer John Adams, and refining those amazing double bass skills. Working in rock, folk, and jazz, his discography includes work, separately, with Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, the…

Take a listen to Immigrance, Snarky Puppy’s new album—the Brooklyn collective’s 13th in 14 years—and, as with all its predecessors, you find yourself quickly immersed. But in what, exactly? The conundrum behind everything that Snarky Puppy does is that it doesn’t sound like anything else. Sure, the basic approach is jazz, but then you come across a song that is nothing like jazz. Then there’s a dose of electronica and a slab of folk and a chunk of rock, and you eventually come to the conclusion that you can’t file Snarky Puppy away in any convenient category because there isn’t one that fits. They do so much, so well, and with such energy and skill, that you end up simply enjoying their output for what it is—great music. While over…

It’s a blistering hot day at NAMM in California as I run to meet America Paz. I jostle through the crowds, and make my way to a quiet corner of the auditorium in order to chat to the Chilean bass heroine. Paz first gained notoriety for her impressive bass skills when a video of her playing a ‘bass-off’ against another player went viral in 2016. Since then, her playing has impressed time and time again, with her virtuoso slap style, and melodic chordal compositions—as well as her singing—revealing no limits to her talents. I wonder where it all began? “I’ve been playing bass for 18 years; I started at the age of 11,” says Paz. “My dad is also a bass player, and he inspired me to play bass as…

Man, we’re so proud of this record. It’s been one of those things where you have the ideas in your head, you start gathering ideas, and then you find everybody around you starting to fall in love with the material. The bass was thought of as just as important as the rest of the record, so there are amazing, tasty, fun, thought-out bass parts, that were just as important as the rest of the tones. Ryan Green produced and mixed the album. He was adamant about making sure that we took each part, dissected it, and really thought about each thing that we were putting down, before we decided to put bass down or whatever. In fact, we recorded the bass last: I love doing that. I think it’s one…

Behold our world-beating bass gear review section, where we bring you the crop of each month’s new, interesting, or otherwise relevant bass guitars, bass amplifiers, bass cabs, and bass effects. Occasionally we’ll review a guitar effect if it’s useful for bassists, but generally speaking, this zone is reserved for bass-specific gear. We take our reviews seriously. BP has readers all over the world, so we’re responsible about our conclusions. If a product is worth your time, we’ll say so; if it’s flawed, we’ll make that clear. We’re not beholden to advertisers in any way, and our tests are independent of the views of manufacturers and distributors. When you read about a product here, you’re getting a balanced review from an experienced bass tester. Value for money is at the top…

Glance at the spec of these two basses and you get the distinct impression that both will make a serious dent in your finances, with their through-necks, walnut tops, ebony fingerboards, Aguilar electronics, and pickups, and Hipshot hardware. But then you notice the pricetags… Build Quality The standard and quality of both the materials and construction of these Chowny basses immediately mark them out as something special. They’re made in India using tonewoods that—where possible—are sourced from the area local to the manufacturing facility. There are some truly gorgeous woods here. The walnut used for the top is dark and beautifully grained, shown off particularly well by the flawless, smooth, satin finish. Maple and more walnut are used for the neck, and the wings of the body are red cedar—actually…

Price | $3,580 Made In | Poland Color | Natural, satin finish Body | Swamp ash core with olive wood top Neck | Four-piece maple laminate with black veneer accent lines, 34” scale Neck Joint | Through-neck Nut Width | 1.85” / 47mm Fingerboard | Birdseye maple Frets | 24 Pickups | EMG 40PX-5 humbucking pickups x 2 Electronics | Mike Pope four-band active Flex Core preamp Controls | Volume/passive tone (stacked), pickup balance, treble, bass, hi-mid/lo-mid (stacked), active/passive switch Hardware | Gold hardware, Warwick machineheads, Gotoh 404BO 5 bridge Weight | 9.9lb Case/gig bag included | Gig bag Left-hand option available | Yes, as a custom order WHAT WE THINK Plus | Tones, looks, playability Minus | Handmade and therefore costly Overall | An impressive debut BP RATING…

THE JAZZ BASSIST RUTH GOLLER Jazz guru Ruth spotlights the value of health I’m always interested in hearing how musicians warm up before gigs. We all have different bodies with different kinds of pains, and it can take years to find a routine that helps us to look after ourselves. I’ve been on tour for about three weeks now, and after the second week, I really started feeling the strain on my body. A lot depends on how much rest you get, what kind of bed you sleep on, and how much driving you do, of course. I’ve never been into heavy exercise, so I’ve always preferred slow, stretching exercises, such as yoga. On the road, it’s important for me to keep a stretching routine going to feel healthy. I…

Welcome to the latest instalment in my long-running series of columns covering the tapping technique, and its many derivatives. If you’ve been following this series from the beginning, you’ll know that we’ve covered a great deal of ground: chords, arpeggios, contrapuntal lines… and for the past five issues, we’ve been paying particular attention to linear tapping. The technique that we’re going to begin looking at in this column is an extension of the linear tapping technique—sweep picking. Sweep picking is a technique that is primarily used by guitarists to play fast, arpeggiated lines across multiple strings. Because of the sweeping motion (more on that in a moment), it requires only minimal effort from the picking hand. Like many of the other tapping styles we’ve covered in these columns, this is…

GRIND CORE! Peavey have announced their new Grind NTB range, available in four-, five-, and six-string models. The basses feature a mahogany body, maple stringers, a mahogany neck, and Indonesian rosewood fingerboard in a neck-through body design. Each model features a 24-fret fingerboard with a 35” scale and is loaded with passive humbuckers. Grab them for a rather affordable $766, $819, and $884. https://peavey.com MEATY Ernie Ball has announced a new addition to their Slinky bass string range. Beefy Slinky bass strings will be available from June 1 and feature ‘the same great bright and balanced tone that Slinkys are known for, in an even heavier combination for four-string players’, according to the company. Usefully for bassists of the headbanging persuasion, the .065 to .130 set has been designed for…

G eddy Lee is an inspiration for many of us, and practising his lines often bolsters our own playing. That’s why Ariane Cap’s latest video lesson in the Talking Technique series focuses on Lee’s work. Cap breaks down the bass-line to Rush’s ‘Dreamline’ to explain how he uses power chords. Starting with a quick harmonic rundown, she gives tips for fingering, technical execution, and practice. ‘This is a groove where playing with one finger in the right hand and foregoing one-finger-per-fret in the left make good sense,’ she says. Another article that sparked discussion was Ryan Madora’s Lightbulb Moment column entitled ‘One Song To Learn’. In it she makes a case for why Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’ has the core of what you need to know to make…

Welcome back! As you’re probably aware, triads consist of a root, 3rd, and 5th. There are four different types of triads—major, minor, diminished, and augmented. Of these, the major stands out as the most consonant, so that’s where we’re going to start. Let’s go! While the major triad is used frequently in all forms of music, what you may not know is that when two triads are formed to create a mutual pair—in other words, where there are no repeated notes between the two triads—these sonorities work together, creating a balanced bitonality, and a much more modern sound. In practice, this means that a major triad is constructed by using the root, 3rd and 5th of a major scale. If we create a triad pair using two major triads a…

“IF YOUR MIND STARTS WANDERING, BRING IT BACK!” You’re originally from Innsbruck, correct? I am, yes. I studied biology there, but when I got my degree, I was beginning to get interested in music, so I went to the bass school in Munich—Bass BMI. I’ve been in the USA since late 1998, when I got a scholarship for the University of Miami for a year. After that I was like, ‘I’m not leaving. I’m enjoying this too much’. I usually tell people I live in ‘Los Francisco’ because I commute between San Francisco and Los Angeles all the time. You’re an educator, a performer, a recording artist, and a composer. What’s a typical day for you, if there is such a thing? I have this ideal day scheduled, that I…

The great John Lodge, now 73, is still as productive today as he was when he first came to bass players’ notice with the Moody Blues, in 1966. We meet him on the eve of The Royal Affair tour of America, led by progressive rock icons Yes, and also featuring Lodge and his solo band. A solo artist as well as band-member, Lodge last released an album under his own in 2015 with 10,000 Light Years Ago—perhaps a reference to the number of air miles he’s clocked up over the years? You’re a lifelong Fender player, John. It’s the sound I heard in my head. When I first started there were no basses at all, particularly in Birmingham in the UK: at first, I didn’t know what a bass guitar…

Breedlove, based in Oregon, has three decades’ worth of expertise in making acoustic instruments, as well as innovations such as guitar tops of graduated thickness, and a bridge that refocuses the string-pull dynamic. The company’s bass range, in the case of the Solo and Pursuit instruments here, are made in China and occupy a mid-market price position. They look fantastic, but we’ve done battle with a lot of stubborn acoustics over the years and tend to approach them with caution. Will we ever come across an acoustic that plays as smoothly as an electric? There’s only one way to find out. Build Quality You’ll have a lot of fun getting to know either the Solo or Pursuit bass. Each is ready for use as a plugged-in bass, with a built-in…

NT5 (NT4)  Price | $1,922 ($1,793) Made In | India Body | Red Cedar with Indian walnut top Neck | Maple/walnut, 32.7” Neck Join | Through-neck Nut Width | 1.8” / 45mm (1.5” / 38mm) Fingerboard | Indian Ebony with abalone markers Frets | 24 Pickups | 2 x Aguilar DBC humbuckers Electronics | 18v Aguilar OBP-3 EQ/ preamp and Aguilar potss Controls | Volume, Passive tone (push/pull for active/passive EQ) Pickup Pan, Treble, Mid, Bass Weight | 8.8lb (8.2lb) Case/gig bag included? | Chowny semi-rigid Left-hand option available? | No WHAT WE THINK Plus | The best tonewoods and components Minus | Given the price, nothing at all Overall | They look great, they sound even better BP RATING…

Making you a better bass player Welcome to our lesson section, in which Bass Player collates the wit and wisdom of the crème de la crème of the electric and upright bass world. We’re fortunate enough to have some serious talent on the team, from world-class music educators, to experienced touring musicians, who between them have laid down the low notes in every studio, club, and arena in the civilized world. Note that we’ve divided the columns according to Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced level for easy reference. Whether you’re looking to improve your playing technique, expand your awareness of theory, set up your rig to sound like your particular bass hero, or simply get on a bus and tour, we provide the answers you need here. What are you waiting…

After a few months focusing on muting, let’s head the other way and think more about how hand position influences note length. We can do this by exploring some more ideas relating to playing more than one string at once. Once again, we’re in an expanded headspace that seems at odds with ‘beginner’ playing, but this worry stems from the application of the bass in pop music, rather than a built-in obstacle to learning our instrument. On guitar, you start with chords because single notes are considered too fiddly: On bass, we start with single notes because chords are considered too difficult. The truth is, there are ‘beginner’ ways to approach all of these, and as always we’re going to be trying to connect our decades of music listening and…

“IF YOU KNOW YOUR PART INSIDE AND OUT, YOU SHOULD BE BE ABLE TO JUMP RIGHT BACK IN” Welcome back, bassists! In this column I will be broaching the subject of dealing with mistakes in a live setting. No matter what level you are at, mistakes can and do happen—it’s all part of being human. As soon as we get to grips with that idea, the more we can enjoy and ultimately relax into performing live. At the same time, it’s good to have an expectation of your own standard of performance and to really minimize the opportunities for mistakes to occur—especially if you’re aiming to work as a live musician in a professional setting. For those reasons, I want to equip you with the necessary skills in order to…

Anyone who frequents online forums has either experienced GAS—the dreaded Gear Acquisition Syndrome—or witnessed those in the throes of it. I myself have been struck by it many times. But what is it, and how do we spare our wallets from it? Most of us who were playing before the internet took off remember what gear shopping was like. You went around to your local shops, had a dream instrument or two you’d occasionally take off the wall and play, and drooled over the pictures in your monthly copy of Bass Player or Bass Guitar. Nowadays, you’re bombarded with beautiful basses, crazy effects ,and high price goodies at every turn on the forums and YouTube. The deck may already be stacked against us, but what pushes some bassists over the…

Welcome again fellow bassists and groovers! Let’s cover two topics this month by finishing up our look at one of my better-known works, ‘Country Music, A Night In Hell’, this time looking at the intro. This will also serve as my first in a series of lessons on tapping. You know, when I started playing the electric bass 46 years ago, it was a very different world. Most of the techniques that modern-day bassists take as the norm were unheard of. Slapping, for example, had been the sole province of upright jazz players for decades. However, chordal playing, playing the head to bebop songs, and tapping, all led the revolution that ended up with—gasp!—solo bass playing. Nowadays it seems that every aspiring bassist needs to have a basic knowledge of…

“I STARTED WORKING PROFESSIONALLY WHEN I WAS NINE YEARS OLD” Agenuinely astounding bassist, Mohini Dey has enjoyed a rapid ascent to worldwide renown in recent years. As a kid she performed alongside a fearsome range of talent in her home town of Mumbai, including the composers A.R. Rahman and Nitin Sawhney, before coming to the attention of another stellar cast of players in the West. Musicians such as Guthrie Govan, Dave Weckl, Jordan Rudess, Steve Vai, Mike Stern, George Brooks, and Narada Michael Walden have shared a stage or studio with Dey, and no modern NAMM Show is complete without her. What are your current projects, Mohini? Right now I’m learning songs for a Japanese tour that I’m part of. I’m touring with this band called B’z for four and…

“I WAS A NUTBALL; I WAS COMPLETELY OBSESSED WITH PLAYING MUSIC” Cody, we last caught up with you at the London Bass Guitar Show in the UK back in 2017. I had a total blast! That show is such a great example of a musical community coming together and hanging out. There’s so much positivity and it’s really beautiful. What are you up to at the moment? Right now I’m preparing for a festival gig under my name with David Pastorius and Ghost-Note featuring MonoNeon. In March I did a cruise called Joe Bonamassa’s Keeping The Blues Alive, and played with Devon Allman and Duane Betts. I’m also about to release my long-anticipated solo album, Star Festival, and I can tell you right now that the one and only Victor…

Your new record sounds killer, Freek. Oh, dude, I’m super-excited. Of course, you get excited about every single record, but this one feels different. I feel like it’s the first time where it’s really caught what I do in the live setting on a record—and you know how hard that is. A big reason for that is the way we recorded it. For the first side of the album, we wrote it, we rehearsed it, and we did it in one take. If someone messed up in the last 10 seconds, we started over again and we re-tracked it again. There were some vocal overdubs, but 90 percent of what you’re hearing was all performed live. That’s their whole ethic at Color Red. It’s the way they used to do…

Solo RRP | $1,065 (MSRP) Made In | Korea Body | Western red cedar top, layered ovangkol back and sides Neck | Mahogany (okoume), 32” scale Nut width | 1.7” Fretboard | Ebony, 23 frets Pickup | LR Baggs EAS VTC Controls | Volume, EQ, tuner Hardware | Chrome closed-gear tuners, ebony bridge Case/gigbag supplied | Deluxe gigbag BP RATING Pursuit RRP | $799 (MSRP) Made In | China Body | Sitka spruce top, layered mahogany (sapele) back and sides Neck | Mahogany (okoume), 32” scale Fretboard | Ovangkol, 22 frets Nut width | 1.7” Pickup | LR Baggs EAS Controls | Volume, EQ, tuner Hardware | Chrome closed-gear tuners, ovangkol bridge Case/gigbag supplied | Standard gigbag WHAT WE THINK Plus | Powerful preamps, high playability, helpful scale Minus |…

Price | $199.99 Made in | China Power | 25 watts RMS Features | Gain, bass, middle, treble, master, preset select, back, save, menu, tap tempo/tuner Speakers | 1 x 8-inch special design bass speaker Dimensions | 15.7” / 400mm (H) x 15.4” / 390mm (W) x 11.2” / 285mm (D) Connections | ¼” input, ¼” footswitch input, 3.5mm aux input, 3.5mm headphone output, USB Type-C input/output Weight | 19.2 lb WHAT WE THINK Plus | Great value, wide effects range Minus | The single speaker can only handle so much Overall | A very impressive combo at this price BP RATING…

The Stave: most music written for the bass guitar uses the bass clef. The example to the right shows the placement of the notes on the stave. Tablature: this is a graphical representation of the music. Each horizontal line corresponds with a string on the bass guitar, with the lowest line representing the lowest pitched string (E). The numbers represent the frets to be played. Numbers stacked vertically indicate notes that are played together. Where basses with five or six strings are required, the tablature stave will have five or six lines as necessary. Notes shown in brackets indicate that a note has been tied over from a previous bar. PLAYING TECHNIQUES SLAP AND POP TECHNIQUE Notes slapped with the thumb are marked with a ‘t’, notes popped with the…

Regular readers of this column will be aware of our recent investigations of 3/4, and 5/4 time signatures. This month, our studies will continue with an introductory level exploration of ‘compound time’. I know that sounds like a mathematical migraine, but hold off on the painkillers for now, as this meter is not as difficult as it sounds. The word ‘compound’ refers to any meter that can be further divided into regular subdivisions. These are almost always groups of three, so 6/8 and 12/8 are perfect examples. Have a look at the two stacked numbers at the beginning of a composition—the time signature. If the number 8 is at the bottom, you’re more than likely to be working with compound time. Example 1 Example 1 is designed as a primer…